Adam Frazier has proven to be a nice addition to the Orioles through a couple weeks of the new season. He’s providing some veteran leadership for a young clubhouse and his bat has taken a step up from last year through this early stage.

After posting an OPS of just .612 last season with Seattle, he is batting .256/.347/.395/.742 through Saturday with three doubles, two steals, oner homer and five RBIs. He has proven to be an above average contact hitter as his track record shows, with just three strikeouts in 39 at-bats through Friday. And the 6.8 strikeout rate at that point was the third-best in MLB.

“I feel good. Swing is in a good place. Feel like I’ve really been bringing the pitchers into the zone so, yeah, as long as I can stay where I am I’ll be fine,” he said during the recent homestand.

And as for the team’s offensive potential, Frazier said he sees good things.

“I think we’ve seen it a little bit so far. It’s dangerous. Any night we can put up a 10 spot. I think one through nine we really challenge the pitcher. Not like we have any holes. Everybody can put the ball in play and most of these guys can go deep at anytime. Lot of tools," Frazier said. 

After their 6-3 comeback win over the White Sox Friday night, a victory today in the windy city would give the Orioles a series victory over Chicago and a chance to sweep the Sox on Sunday afternoon.

Adley Rutschman’s bases-loaded double on an 0-2 pitch in the seventh inning, turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead and the Orioles went on to win to improve to 8-6.

The AL East standings today

Tampa Bay at 13-1
Toronto at 9-5
Orioles, New York Yankees at 8-6
Boston at 6-8

The Orioles are two games over the .500 mark for the first time this season and have won four of five games. They are 4-3 in road games and are now 5-0 in series-opening games.

BOWIE, Md. - Adley Rutschman was the clutch man again for the Orioles.

The Orioles are now 5-0 this year in series-opening games after posting a come-from-behind 6-3 win over the White Sox in Chicago. Rutschman’s bases-loaded double to left center field in the seventh inning provided Baltimore a 4-3 lead and the O’s bullpen combined for 3 2/3 scoreless after Tyler Wells exited.

Nice start to a road trip and the Orioles, at 8-6. are two games over the .500 mark for the first time. They have won four of five games.

Rutschman now in his career with the bases loaded is 3-for-8 with two doubles and nine RBIs.

“Adley just doing what he's been doing, just getting huge hits for us," said manager Brandon Hyde. "Getting an 0-2 mistake and putting the ball in the gap."

BOWIE, Md. – The Orioles may be pointing to next Wednesday for right-hander Kyle Bradish to re-enter their starting rotation. He took a liner off his right foot in the second inning April 3 at Texas, went on the injured list and made a rehab start tonight at Double-A Bowie against Akron. 

It was a big step for Bradish, who is eligible to rejoin the active roster on Wednesday when the Orioles play the second of a two-game series in Washington against the Nationals.

Bradish was rolling early on tonight, throwing scoreless ball through three innings, but then the RubberDucks hit a three-run homer against him as part of their four-run fourth inning.

For his night he allowed four runs (three earned) on three hits in five innings. He walked one and fanned five on 82 pitches, 51 for strikes. His fastball, per a scout's radar gun, worked between 94 and 96 mph in the top of the first at Prince George's Stadium. 

After his outing, Bradish said he had absolutely no issues with his foot tonight and if the O's want his next turn to be with the Orioles, he's ready.

After their first road trip was followed by their first homestand of the 2023 season, the Orioles are back on the road starting tonight. They play three games at Chicago against the White Sox this weekend and play two games in Washington next Tuesday and Wednesday at Nats Park.

Baltimore went 3-3 on that first trip, going 1-2 at Boston and 2-1 at Texas.

The White Sox are 5-8, after going 81-81 last year with a second-place finish in the American League Central. Right now they are trailing Minnesota (9-4) and Cleveland (7-6) in the standings in third place.

They began the year going 2-2 at Houston and since have gone 1-2 versus San Francisco, at Pittsburgh and at Minnesota, where they lost the last two games of that series by 4-3 and 3-1 scores on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Chicago ranks third in the AL in team batting (.263) and eighth in OPS (.728). Their team ERA of 5.79 ranks 13^th in the AL. The White Sox rotation ERA stands at 5.00 (which is 10^th), while their bullpen ERA of 7.01 is the worst in the league.

Orioles' pitching allowed 23 runs in the last three games of the Oakland series, but the Baltimore offense was such that they were able to win two of those games by 12-8 and 8-7 scores.

But the Orioles know they are going to need to tighten up the pitching and fast. Somehow they are 7-6 and they did take three of four against Oakland despite the leaky pitching. The starters the last three days combined to allow 15 runs in 12 2/3 innings. And in those games, the bullpen was used for more innings than the starters, needed to cover 14 1/3 innings.

The O’s have already had two streaks of three straight games allowing seven runs or more this year. They didn’t have one such streak in 2022.

O’s starters have thrown five innings or less 10 times in 13 games, including in each of the last three games. That won’t be good enough to stay over .500 over the long haul. But right now the Baltimore offense is making it work and the Orioles have scored seven runs or more six times.

In the Oakland series, the Orioles scored 29 runs on 38 hits and hit eight homers. They batted .351 with runners in scoring position (13-37) and got some clutch hits against A’s pitching.

The Oakland Athletics scored four late runs last night to break a 4-4 tie and beat the Orioles 8-4 at Camden Yards. The Orioles have taken two of three in this four-game series, which wraps up this afternoon.

O's pitching has allowed eight runs to Oakland in back-to-back games after Monday's series-opening 5-1 win.

Baltimore's team ERA of 5.37 ranks 12th in the American League right now and is well behind last season's mark of 3.97. The O's rotation ERA of 6.39 ranks 12th in the AL, with the Orioles ahead of just Detroit, Boston and Oakland. 

Through 12 games, the rotation has covered 56 1/3 innings and the bullpen has been needed for 49 1/3. O's starting pitchers five thrown five innings or less in nine games and allowed four runs or more in six games. 

The last two nights, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer have combined to pitch 8 2/3 innings versus Oakland, allowing 11 hits and nine runs.

Manager Brandon Hyde called them “SeaWorld” acts this week. The Orioles have a few different ways to celebrate producing solid offense in their dugout, and fans at Oriole Park, throughout Birdland and now even around baseball are starting to see this is a team with a strong collective personality.

And they are doing just what their manager wants.

They are celebrating player and team success while bonding as a group. A couple of players I talked to this week say that not only are the various celebrations fun for the team, but might they lead to more wins too.

They are showing their talents when they hit the homers or other extra-base hits, and different ways to celebrate after a key hit. They are showing that they are a young, creative and maybe a little brash at times group that has a strong personality and is not afraid to show it off.

“Just shows how creative our pitching staff can be. They’ve come up with some creative celebrations this year,” outfielder Austin Hays said.

After wins by 5-1 and 12-8 the last two nights, the Orioles look to take Game 3 of their four-game series with the Oakland Athletics this evening at Camden Yards. Ryan Mountcastle tied the team single-game RBI record, driving in nine runs in Tuesday’s win in Baltimore.

Mountcastle’s fast 11-game start has him leading the majors in RBIs and tied for the lead in homers. He is batting .289/.320/.711/.1.031 with four doubles, five homers and 18 RBIs. He ranks fifth in the American League and ninth in the majors in slugging. He's tied for 10^th in the AL and 22^nd in the big leagues in OPS.

Three O’s batters rank among the top 10 in the American League in OPS today, with Adley Rutschman fifth (1.118), Austin Hays ninth (1.058) and Mountcastle 10^th.

Two pitchers who have struggled in their first two starts take the mound tonight. Right-hander Dean Kremer (0-0, 10.13 ERA) pitches for Baltimore and lefty Ken Waldichuk (0-2, 14.45) goes for Oakland.

Last season Kremer went 8-7 with a 3.23 ERA, but this season he has allowed five runs in three innings at Boston and four runs in five innings at home to the New York Yankees. So over eight combined innings he has allowed 11 hits, nine runs and 1.875 WHIP.

To consider how special Ryan Mountcastle’s performance was last night as he tied a team record driving in nine runs, consider just how rare that was. Since moving to Baltimore in 1954, the Orioles have played more than 10,800 games. Just three times has a player driven in nine runs.

Just three times has a player driven in exactly eight (Cal Ripken Jr., Chris Hoiles and Frank Robinson) and just 15 times has a player knocked in seven runs in a game. Jim Gentile hit two grand slams in producing the first-ever O’s nine-RBI game at Minnesota on May 9, 1961. Then Eddie Murray hit a slam in driving in nine at the California Angels on Aug. 26, 1985.

Last night, Mountcastle drove a sac fly to center in the first and tied the game 2-2 with his RBI single to center in the third. His three-run homer in the fifth cut the O’s deficit to 7-6. His grand slam in the seventh added to a Baltimore lead, making it a 12-7 edge. A 3-for-4 night with two homers and nine RBIs.

“What Mounty did last night, that was incredibly special,” manager Brandon Hyde said this afternoon. “I don’t know if I have ever seen anyone have that many RBIs. Been asked a few times and I can’t remember. Just a huge game, offensively.

"Love watching some national stuff today and people around the country get to see him because of the highlights. He’s turning into a really, really good hitter and showing the power he has. I love the base hit up the middle with two outs early in the game. Being able to stay on a ball like that and it shows the barrel control he has.”

It was a first in Orioles history. Never had a player driven in nine runs in one home game until Ryan Mountcastle did it last night at Camden Yards as the Orioles beat Oakland 12-8.

What a night for Mountcastle who joins Eddie Murray and Jim Gentile as the only Orioles in team history – which dates to 1954 of course – to have a nine-RBI game. Gentile hit two grand slams when he drove in nine on May 9, 1961 at Minnesota. Murray hit one slam when he did it Aug. 26, 1985 at the California Angels.

Mountcastle’s night began with a sac fly in the first inning. He added an RBI single in the third, three-run homer in the fifth and grand slam in the seventh. He went 3-for-4 and his slam went 456 feet. He produced his seventh career multi-homer game and second career grand slam.

The first three batters in the Baltimore order – Austin Hays, Adley Rutschman and Mountcastle – went a combined 9-for-12 with two doubles, three homers, eight runs and 11 RBIs.

Through 11 games, Mountcastle is batting .289/.320/.711/1.031 with four doubles, five homers and 18 RBIs. No other player on the team has more than three homers and no one has more than eight RBIs except for him.

Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (0-0, 3.60 ERA) tonight makes his Oriole Park debut and his second career start as the Orioles' four-game series with the Oakland Athletics continues.

The Orioles (5-5) beat Oakland (2-8) by 5-1 on Monday to start this series as Ryan Mountcastle hit a two-run homer in the first inning before Adley Rutschman and Austin Hays added solo shots. It was Rutschman's first time in the majors homering in back-to-back games.

The Orioles have been at .500 five times at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4 and now 5-5. Oakland has lost five in a row and been outscored 42-10 in those games. In the last three games, opponents have outscored the A’s 27-1.

The Orioles offense has scored 50 runs through the first 10 games and posted a team batting line of .236/.325/.432/.757. They have produced six multi-home run games thus far, and scored five runs or more six times.

Rodriguez made his anticipated big league debut last Wednesday afternoon at Texas at Globe Life Field. He allowed two runs in the first inning, but nothing the rest of his outing. He went five innings and gave up four hits and two runs with one walk and five strikeouts, throwing 83 pitches, 53 for strikes.

Gunnar Henderson, off to a .148 batting start in his first eight games of this season, has been making some small adjustments in his batting stance that he feels soon could produce the solid results he and the team expect from him.

In his 34 games after his call-up last year he batted .259 with a .788 OPS, producing an OPS+ of 123. Those numbers made him among the favorites and maybe the favorite to win the 2023 American League Rookie of the Year Award. 

“I feel like it’s still early for me because I was a little bit behind in spring (dealing with a minor wrist issue early in camp), not getting all the live at-bats I needed,” he said today. “I’m taking my walks and having really good pitch selection right now. Just some of them haven’t gone my way. Been working on some body posture in the cage. Past few games had some really good swings on the ball, reminding me of past swings I’ve had. Feeling the way I am right now, I feel it will come around.”

Henderson is 4-for-27 but has drawn a team-leading eight walks to go along with 14 strikeouts. He has one double, one homer and two RBIs. Only four players in the entire AL have drawn more than eight walks.

Believe it or not, Henderson is now drawing on the experience of another slow start, this one when he was promoted from Single-A Delmarva to High-A Aberdeen in June 2021. Back then he was just 1-for-31 (.032) in his first 11 games after moving up to Aberdeen. What he learned then: Don’t panic over that start and don’t try to constantly make changes to get his bat going.

He was not a high draft pick, but maybe Double-A Bowie right-hander Justin Armbruester, their Opening Day starter, was the perfect pick for the Orioles organization and its pitching development program.

He entered an organization that under the Mike Elias front office has become heavily data and technology driven. In Armbruester, they added a cerebral pitcher who loves to soak up the data and analytics. He seems to want to use every advantage and resource available to him that he can get his hands on. Beyond the technology the Orioles provide him, he even keeps his own notebooks on opponent hitters and even makes notes on ballpark factors everywhere he goes.

Last year we started to see where a pitcher driven to get better, started to indeed do just that. Between High Single-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie, he went 6-2 with a 3.85 ERA over 117 innings. He walked 34, fanned 126, posted a 1.07 WHIP and opponent batters hit just .213 off him.

That was a solid year that landed him at the No. 20 spot on the latest Baseball America O’s top 30 prospects list. He is still sort of flying under the radar a bit, but less than he was. On Opening Night for Bowie at Hartford last Thursday, he threw five scoreless innings on five hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

Then no doubt he went back to work in his between starts bullpen sessions, using everything around him to try and keep getting better.

After losing two of three over the weekend to the New York Yankees, the Orioles' (4-5) homestand continues tonight at Oriole Park. They begin a four-game series against the Oakland Athletics (2-7), who have lost four in a row and got swept three straight by the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Oakland lost 9-5 Friday and by identical 11-0 scores the last two days. The A’s were outscored 31-5 in that series and have been outscored 37-9 the past four games. A’s pitching has already allowed 11 runs or more four times this season.

And that pitching staff has been the worst of all 30 teams in the majors with a team ERA of 7.54. Oakland starting pitchers to this point are 0-5 with a 10.04 ERA, 1.88 WHIP, and a .320 batting average against. They have allowed 12 homers in 40 1/3 innings. That is easily the worst rotation ERA in the major leagues, with Detroit the next worst at 7.49.

In the Tampa Bay series, the A’s starters covered a combined 12 innings, allowing 18 hits and 20 runs. On Saturday they needed their backup catcher to pitch the eighth inning of that loss.

The Oakland offense has had its share of issues as well. As a team, they are batting .192/.265/.320/.585 and scoring just 27 runs so far. They rank between 13^th and 15^th in the American League in each of those four categories.

For Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins, after a solid start to his year batting against left-handed pitching, he sees it as actually a good thing that the Orioles face three left-handers to start their series against Oakland.

Mullins got his season off to a great start, going 5-for-13 with two homers and seven RBIs in the first series at Boston. But he is 2-for-24 in the six games since that series. However, he is also 4-for-11 with a homer and six RBIs versus lefties this year after struggling against southpaws in 2022.

So bring on the lefties as the Oakland series begins.

“Yeah, I’d say so (nice to see lefties),” he said this afternoon in the Baltimore clubhouse. “You know, I feel like I’ve had pretty strong at-bats and just a matter of putting them altogether. I know it’s still early in that aspect, but feel confident where I am.

“Kind of in the middle (right now). I had a really strong start out in Boston. In terms of strikeouts, I feel like those have been manageable. Had a few walks as well, so feel like I am controlling the zone really well. Just a mater of finding the grass and keep focusing on hitting the ball hard.”

The newest addition to the Orioles is continuing to make a nice first impression, even though he has pitched in four games now. Lefty Danny Coulombe, 33, has thrown 3 2/3 scoreless thus far on just one hit with no walks, four strikeouts and an .083 batting average against.

He got the first two outs of the seventh inning Sunday and then allowed a single. Logan Gillaspie then replaced him and stranded the inherited runner. Coulombe was acquired by the club very late in spring training, on March 27, from Minnesota for cash considerations.

“Everybody has been great so far, really welcoming. It’s a really young team, but really talented. Enjoying it so far,” Coulombe said recently about fitting in well so far as an Oriole.

“There is so much talent in this clubhouse and on the pitching side it’s been fun to see how these guys work. These pitchers have an idea of what they want to do. That is fun to see. It’s still early and I’m still trying to get to know people but it’s been fun so far,” he said.

Coulombe said he had some nerves going for his first outing with the his new club during the second game of the season at Boston.

The Orioles (4-4) host the New York Yankees (5-3) today in the third and deciding game of this series before welcoming Oakland to town on Monday to start a four-game series as this homestand continues.

The Orioles posted a 7-6 win on Opening Day in Baltimore on Friday, but New York held the Orioles to just four singles last night as they went 4-for-30 in a 4-1 loss. The Orioles went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base in their lowest scoring game of the year.

The Orioles have scored five runs or more five times this season, but also already have three games where they have been held to four hits or less. Baltimore batters hit 11 homers in the season’s first five games, but have no homers over their last three games.

Right-hander Tyler Wells (0-0, 0.00) will make his second appearance and first start of the year. He came on in emergency relief Monday night at Texas after Kyle Bradish left that game injured. Wells threw five no-hit innings from the fourth through eighth innings at Globe Life Field. He needed just 47 pitches, 33 for strikes, to get the 15 outs.

Wells threw 16 four-seam fastballs versus the Rangers, which averaged 93.5 mph and topped at 94.7. He added 14 cutters with an average 89.0 mph velocity. He also threw nine changeups, five curveballs and three sliders.

For a pitcher that once was trying to make it to the majors while starting out in independent league baseball, making an Opening Day roster was special. And there was O's bullpen right-hander Logan Gillaspie, 25, running down the orange carpet with the rest of the Orioles on Friday afternoon.

He made his MLB debut last May 17 with two scoreless innings against the Yankees, and now has an ERA of 3.26 in 19 1/3 big league innings with the Orioles over the last two seasons.

Gillaspie’s pro career began in 2017 in independent league baseball, where he actually spent time as both a pitcher and position player.

His record from the 2017 season shows 22 games on the mound for three different teams, plus a few games at first base and catcher, and even one at shortstop. He went 4-for-23 as a hitter.

The Milwaukee Brewers signed him in 2018 but released him in 2019. The Orioles signed him on June 9, 2021, and he made his big league debut on the mound at Camden Yards last May. And he was a surprise addition to the bullpen on Opening Day this year.

The Orioles, now 2-0 on Opening Days in the 2023 season and 3-0 in series-opening games, will host the New York Yankees tonight. It’s the first night game of the year in Baltimore and the second game of a three-game series.

The Orioles improved to 46-24 all-time in home openers and 22-10 in Oriole Park openers with Friday’s 7-6 win in front of a sellout crowd of 45,017. Six different Orioles drove in runs as they had 10 hits. Through seven games the team is batting .259/.350/.469/.819, and they’ve hit 17 doubles and 11 home runs and scored 41 runs. The Orioles have scored five or more in five of their seven games and scored seven runs or more four times.

Shortstop Jorge Mateo, being rested tonight with a sore ankle, tallied his team-high third multi-hit performance of the season on Friday, going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and a run scored. In 2022, he didn’t record his first multi-hit game until the team’s ninth game and didn’t register his third multi-hit performance until his 25th game of the season.

Ramón Urías picked up his second multi-hit game (he also had multiple hits on March 30 at Boston). He produced his fifth career game with two doubles, and his first since July 16, 2022 at Tampa Bay.

First sacker Ryan Mountcastle swiped his first bag of the season in the seventh inning. That marked his first stolen base since July 8, 2022 against the Los Angeles Angels. Mountcastle, who is batting .276/.333/.586/.920, has hit safely in six of the first seven games to start the new year.